


So, What do you think about going there with me?

by Atalto



Series: The Story of Us (Pebble's Shance Fluff Week fics) [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuddling, Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Panic Attack, Post-Kerberos, Shance Fluff Week 2017, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, day 5: Cuddles/Hugs, pre-kerberos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-11 05:45:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11142168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atalto/pseuds/Atalto
Summary: Hugs always had a grounding effect for Lance, taking him out of the hurricane that was Voltron and placing him back on metallic floors. It took a while, of sleepless death-holds and soft, after battle embraces that proved to each other that they still existed, that he realised he liked Shiro’s the most.Really, it’s no surprise.A series of notable embraces.~Written for Shance Fluff Week day 5: Cuddles/Hugs





	So, What do you think about going there with me?

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all!  
> Two things:  
> 1) Shiro has a panic attack in the second extract. Since this was written from my own experience, I don't know if it's accurate for someone in Shiro's position, so please feel free to call me out on any inaccuracies.  
> 2) Lance and Shiro are written with an age gap of about two years, so in the Pre-Kerberos scene, Lance is 16 and Shiro is 18(and thus are 18 and 20 in the present timeline). Just clearing this up now bc I dont want anyone to feel uncomfortable.
> 
> Title from Twixter by Make Out Monday
> 
> Enjoy!

Hugs always had a grounding effect for Lance, taking him out of the hurricane that was Voltron and placing him back on metallic floors. It took a while, of sleepless death-holds and soft, after battle embraces that proved to each other that they still existed, that he realised he liked Shiro's the most.  
Really, it's no surprise.

* * *

 

The first time he thinks of is back at the beginning.  
It arguably started before Kerberos. At the Garrison, where everything had to be kept on the down low, quiet and unspoken as to not be discovered. It was one particular night that Lance remembers fondly; it was the first week back after summer break, Shiro had just graduated and was training for Kerberos, and Lance hadn't yet flunked the flight exam that haunted his piloting career.  
A simpler time, if you will. Their only worry was Iverson catching Lance on his way to Shiro's quarters, rather than death at the hands of the Galra. Thankfully, Lance hadn't even heard other footsteps tonight, and opened the door with a click of his stolen keys.  
Shutting the door gently, he found Shiro hunched over a desk, reading what appeared to be flight manuals. It was a soft sight; yellow light from an old lamp illuminated Shiro's face, casting fuzzy shadows over his cheeks and eyes. Apart from that, the room was dark, an indication that he'd lost track of time again.  
Lance smiled at the sight, creeping up to Shiro and wrapping his arms around Shiro's shoulders. "Whatcha' reading?" He asked, pressing a kiss into black hair. Below him, Shiro chuckled and placed a warm hand over Lance's.  
"Nothing heavy, just some old flight logs Commander Holt wanted me to be up to date with." He leaned back in his chair and span it around once Lance retracted his arms. "How's your week been? Classes alright?"  
"They've been alright, I guess. I think I've had more work this past week then I've had all of last year." He replied, throwing his arms wide for emphasis, then letting them fall to his sides once more. "How's the piloting going so far?"  
"I haven't done any yet, I've just been sitting in on departmental meetings and planning routes." He said, smiling at Lance's empathetic pout. "Iverson still thought I was a cadet until Professor Jericho pointed it out to him." Slowly, Shiro stood and walked over to Lance, who practically jumped towards him and looped his arms over his shoulders. Shiro rested his hands low on Lance's hips before pulling him in for a warm hug. "It's been a weird week without you, Kitten."  
"God, I know, right?" Lance agreed, tilting his head up to look at Shiro. "I saw you at lunch the other day, and I was about to go and eat with you until I remembered you're my 'superior' now."  
"Haven't I technically always been your superior?"  
Lance hummed noncommittally. "Yeah, but that was because you were two classes up from me. You were still a 'lowly cadet' like the rest of us." He imitated Iverson's gruff insults, making Shiro laugh quietly until Lance threw his face against his chest with mock anger. Shiro had missed this, missed sliding into his dorm just before lights out to hear Lance ramble about his day, missed dragging Keith over to their shared lunch bench and laugh fondly at Hunk's amazement that 'the Takashi Shirogane' sat, ate lunch with them and shared crappy jokes.  
A knock snapped his head up.  
"Shirogane? Are you in?"

Lance tensed in his arms, looking up at Shiro with a face of abject horror. "Shit." He whispered through gritted teeth.  
"Oh god, where can you hide?" Shiro madly looked around the room, could he hide in the bathroom?  
That's when he span around to see Lance folding himself into the metal closet by his bed, sending a thumbs up and making Shiro withhold a laugh before shutting the doors in on himself.

The talk didn't take long, and the Professor never actually invited herself into the room, so really there wasn't any need for Lance to hide. Ten minutes later, Shiro rapped his knuckles against the metal of the closet, whispering a "She's gone." through the open grills. Lance practically tumbled out of the closet, falling dramatically into Shiro's arms.  
"It's getting near curfew, you should go." Shiro murmured into his shoulder.  
Lance grumbled. "Then make sure this hug is good then. It's gotta fill my hug quota for the week, and there's only so much Hunk can do."  
In response, Shiro tightened the hug, pressing his lips to the sensitive skin on Lance's neck before kissing up and along his jawbone. In his arms, Lance shuddered and leaned further into Shiro, allowing his head to be moved so he could place a chaste kiss on Lance's lips. Their breath mingled for a second, neither wanting to break this moment.  
"Go, I'll see you next week."  
"Same time?" Lance asked, panting slightly in time with his thudding heart.  
Shiro nodded. "I sit in on your astrophysics. If it changes, I'll slip you a note."  
Smiling, Lance pressed one more kiss onto Shiro's lips before backing away.  
"I love you." He tossed over his shoulder with a fond smile. "See you tomorrow, yeah?"  
Shiro nodded. "Of course." He returned the smile. "Love you too!"

* * *

 

When Lance heard the Kerberos mission failed a year later, he realised how hard walking past a door you used to linger at was.

* * *

 

The next one he remembers was nearly a year after the accident and two years after the first memory, heralded by an alien pod crashing out of the sky and a chase through a canyon on Keith's stolen hover bike. Shiro was in there, unconscious and terrified, and Lance's hope grew the tiniest bit in its own selfishness. His boyfriend was alive; changed, traumatised and minus an arm, but alive against the odds.

Then Shiro had asked his name in a curious question, and Lance was forced to plaster a smile on as he shook a hand that just felt _so wrong_.

They ended up at a tiny shack in the middle of the desert, and Lance was beginning to go stir crazy. He'd lain awake on a ripped sofa, listening to Pidge's purr-like snores and Keith upstairs eventually crashing after punching a wall for what felt like hours.  
(A tiny part of Lance felt guilty that he, a summer fling whom Shiro didn't even remember, wanted Shiro back when his near-brother was beating himself up because the person who fell from the sky just wasn't the same.)

There was no way he was sleeping like this.

Careful not to wake Pidge by his feet and Hunk on the floor next to them with machinery strewn around him, Lance slowly got to his feet and wandered into the cool desert night. It was lonely, with a silence that stretched into crackling white noise and breeze that fought against the heat emanating from the rocks. It was hard to make out anything here - with so little light, everything was bathed in darkness - but he could just about see something moving over on the canyon side. An animal, maybe? A rock teetering in the wind?

Nope. Just Shiro sat awkwardly with his legs hanging over the edge, black of his borrowed clothes bleeding into the shadows around him. Lance barely had time to step back before the man - _barely a man, an image of stolen youth and lost time_ \- whipped his head around, eyes wide and fearful. Seeing this, Lance froze and watched as he shakily got to his feet and half ran, half stumbled over to where he was stood. He barely had time to open his mouth before he was pulled into a crushing hold that wrapped around his shoulders and a white shock of hair accompanied a head on his shoulder. Behind him, the robot arm clicked as fingers tightened their grip on his arm.  
At first, Lance could only stand in shock, but eventually the hug was reciprocated when Lance slipped his arms around Shiro's waist.  
He felt wet on his shoulder. Was Shiro crying?  
A soft murmuring accompanied the tears. "I'm so sorry." He made out, Shiro's voice muffled by tears and the material of Lance's jacket. "Please, Lance, I didn't mean to leave you, I didn't want to put you through this, I'm so-"  
Lance cut him off, sliding a hand up to Shiro's face and gently pulling it up until they were face to face. His face was beet red from crying, tear tracks juxtaposing the jagged white of the scar that just _shouldn't be there_.  
"Hey big guy." Lance answered with a sad chuckle. "What you went through is not your fault, you didn't ask for any of this mess, yeah?"  
Shiro hummed and tilted his head into Lance's hand, eyes flicking to the floor.  
"In that arena, all I could think of was you." He admitted, voice quiet, cracked and childlike. "I saw you, and Keith, and Katie, _oh my god, Katie_." His face paled again and his eyes gained a wild touch; Lance recognised Katie as Matt Holt's sister, so he guessed Shiro hadn't been able to save Matt as well.  
"Hey, Shiro?" Lance questioned softly; Shiro didn't answer. "Takashi, are you with me?"  
It wasn't really a response. "They're coming, you're not safe with me here." He looked up slowly, tears beginning to flow again. "Lance, I can't breathe."

Then his legs buckled and Lance dropped down under his weight and slowly slid to the floor, whispering assurances to Shiro who looked as scared as ever. Once they were on the rocky earth below, Lance repositioned Shiro so that he was practically sat in Lance's lap and his head was on Lance's chest. "Okay, Shiro, you're going to be okay, can you breathe with me?" He asked. Shiro nodded jerkily, hands frozen around Lance's wrists. "Okay so in," he breathed in loudly, so Shiro could hear, "and out." He exhaled again.  
Lance didn't notice when it happened, lost in the rhythm of breathing and rubbing small slow circles on Shiro's wrists, but eventually Shiro was breathing somewhat normally again and had loosened the grip on his wrists. It wasn't really an embrace, more Shiro sat on Lance, listening to his heartbeat through his chest, and Lance holding him there with arms curled around his waist. It was awkward and uncomfortable, mainly due to Shiro being that much bigger than Lance, but in that moment it was perfect.

Lance broke the silence first. "Back there, I thought you had forgotten me."  
Shiro looked up and placed a trembling hand on Lance's jaw. "I could never forget you. You were the only thing that kept me going some days."  
Lance sighed, humbled by what Shiro just admitted. "You don't deserve any of what you went through, you know."  
Shiro didn't answer, instead going back to listening to Lance's heart beat.  
Looking up into the clear sky, Lance sighed and let one hand run through shaved hair, each bump of scarred skin a horrific reminder of what had occurred.

But none of that mattered, he reminded himself. Shiro was here, finally, safe. Tomorrow, they'd find Voltron. Everything was going to be fine.

* * *

 

Lance had lied to himself; in reality, everything was not fine.

Everything blurs after that, a blue barrage of memories that Lance tries not to think about incase hindsight kicks in. So he distracts himself, picks another memory. Another hug from Shiro that anchors itself lovingly into his thoughts against the waves of war and team-based anxiety.

The next one he picks was in the castle, shortly after they'd left Arus. Sure, Allura and Coran didn't know much about humans, but they'd known enough about circadian rhythms to introduce a 'night mode' into the lighting so the Paladins knew that, when the lights dimmed or clicked out all together, it was time to sleep. It was an experience that took some getting used to, waking up in the middle of the night and groping the walls for a light switch or a bedside lamp before realising they didn't exist.  
It was one such night like this that Lance remembers. That day had been wild, Lance ending up tied to a tree after getting tricked by Nyma and his lion stolen, only for Keith to retrieve it in a fast-paced space chase through an asteroid belt, and to never let him forget that fact. He was exhausted, particularly after guiltily avoiding Shiro's eyes for the day, and after the bollocking he'd received from the Princess. When he finally made it to bed, he'd practically collapsed, still in full armour, onto the soft material.  
He just wanted this day to be over.

Lance was starting to drift off when he was aware of the door sliding open with a hiss and the burst of hallway light that accompanied it. Rolling over, he groaned and squinted his eyes to adjust to the light, his armour sticking into his shoulder as he turned. He could just about make out a shadowy figure in the doorway, figure silhouetted against the light of the hallway. Panic was setting in, but he just couldn't find the energy to reach for his Bayard.

"Kitten? Are you okay?"  
Oh, it was Shiro. Relax.

Lance mumbled an affirmative and fell back onto the bed, tracking the sound of Shiro's footsteps to tell that he was slowly coming towards him. A hand appeared on his shoulder and a face materialised above him. He trusted this face. Even though he'd been avoiding Shiro throughout the day, he couldn't be bothered to tell Shiro to bugger off, particularly when the elder had that concerned-boyfriend look on his face that Lance physically couldn't say no to.  
"C'mon Blue, let's get that armour off. It can't be comfortable." The black Paladin instructed gently, while Lance nodded and sat up. Strong hands reached around his back to undo clasps and pull the chest piece off, and Lance lethargically pulled off the arm and leg guards, until he was only in the black undersuit. Next to him, Shiro sat on his haunches with his arms resting on the bed; now he was closer, Lance could make out that he was in altean pyjamas. "Now, is that okay or can I help you to the bathroom to change?"  
Lance shook his head. "I'll be fine."  
"Okay then." Shiro agreed and stood, before lightly rolling Lance onto his side. "Would you mind if I joined you tonight?"  
"Knock yourself out."  
Then, the bed behind Lance's back dipped as Shiro got under the thin sheets. Within seconds he was pulled flush against Shiro's chest and two muscled arms appeared around his front. Legs slotted in behind his and he felt a slow, even breathing on the top of his head. It was warm, protective and safe, and Lance felt himself melting into the embrace and shuffling backwards into Shiro.  
"No one blames you for what happened today, you know that?" Shiro whispered once he felt Lance go lax. "It was a mistake, and mistakes happen."  
In his arms, Lance squirmed. "The Princess won't let me forget. I almost lost a lion."  
"But we didn't." Shiro affirmed, punctuating the sentence with a kiss to Lance's head. "And secretly? I think Keith really enjoyed the chase through the meteors."  
"Hunk probably enjoyed being right." Lance chuckled, thinking about how Hunk had tried to convince them all that Rolo and Nyma weren't trustworthy. Shiro laughed as well, a rumble that Lance felt through the chest he was pillowed against.  
"I won't go running off with alien women again, promise." Lance said with a slight smile, tilting his head up to press a kiss into Shiro's jaw. Shiro hummed in response, tired yet affectionate. "She just had me really psyched up, y'know? Kept comparing me to Keith, and I just, like, agreed with everything she said." His smile faded and the arms around him tightened.  
"Next time, I'll be there." Lance slunk in his arms after he said that.  
"Nah, I just need to stop trusting everyone I meet."  
Shiro frowned and ran a hand through Lance's hair. "You just look for the good in people, and that's a brilliant quality to have." Another kiss fell on Lance's head. "Please, don't ever change."  
Lance laughed slightly sadly. "Depends on how annoyed everyone gets with me, so no promises."  
"Then they'll have me to answer to." Now he kissed Lance's hairline, feeling him fidget playfully at the touch to sensitive skin. "I love you Blue, even when you do run off with alien mavericks."  
"Love you too, 'Kashi." Lance giggled quietly and relaxed in Shiro's arms. "I might faint on you if you don't let me sleep though."  
"Sounds fair." Shiro rested his head on the pillow again, pulling Lance back into the hug and settling into a more comfortable position. "Good night Kitten."  
"Night Takashi."

They fell asleep tangled up in each other, and no one seemed to question when they stumbled into breakfast late the next morning. Lance felt incredibly lucky.

* * *

 

"Keith said I wasn't a good hugger this morning."  
Lance didn't even look up from his hologram. "That's bullshit, and you know it."  
Across the sofa from him, Shiro rested his head on his chin in thought. "He said they're too, y'know," he mimed giving a bear hug, arms wide and open, "overpowering."  
"They are." Shiro frowned at Lance's response. "But that's what's so great about them. They're warm."  
He raised his eyebrows fondly. "Really?"  
Looking up, Lance smirked and minimised the hologram back into the wrist of his armour. "Yeah man! I'll go tell him that after training if you want."  
"Keith?" Shiro questioned with mock surprise. "I think he'll need examples."  
With that, Lance crawled over, throwing his arms over Shiro's shoulders and perching on his lap, helmets knocking together. "Trust me, I've definitely got a few I can think of."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks y'all for reading, this week is going so quickly oh my god!


End file.
